Woman accused of killing mother denied bail
WESTERN BUREAU — Dawnette Hyatt, the 37 year-old woman with a history of mental illness who is accused of fatally stabbing her mother last month, was denied bail when she reappeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court Wednesday.
The young woman, who allegedly attacked her mother during an argument over Sunday dinner, will have to spend the next two weeks behind bars until the case is brought back before the court on July 17.
At that time it is expected that the outstanding post-mortem examination report will be added to the case file.
In court Wednesday, Hyatt’s attorney, Albert Morgan, said that despite her history of mental illness his client was now lucid. And he also disputed the prosecution’s allegations in the matter.
According to Morgan, his client’s brother had attacked her and it was when she tried to defend herself that her mother had stepped between them and was stabbed.
Presiding magistrate, Valerie Stephens, however, told Morgan those were not the allegations with which she was familiar. And she made no bail offer to the accused woman.
The prosecution is alleging that at about 2:30 pm on June 9, Hyatt went home to Salt Spring in St James and asked for food. The food was reportedly not ready and as a result an argument developed between her and her brothers, Adrian and Roger Campbell.
During the argument she reportedly picked up a knife and tried to stab Adrian. Her mother, Dorothy Campbell, intervened by stepping between them to quell the quarrel and it was then that Hyatt allegedly stabbed her in the chest.
The 56 year-old woman died later at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
The police said that after their mother’s death, the two male siblings, aged 19 and 20, attacked their older sister.
Adrian is reported to have used a knife to stab Hyatt in the back while Roger was accused of using a stone to hit her on the head. There are also allegations that they both hit her with stones and building blocks.
The two have since been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm and they are to return to court on Wednesday, July 10.
